Pingpong Prep
Li Zhuoming, 10, of Harbin, second from right in the front row, begins his pingpong training with other boys at a sports school in Beijing. (Jean Chung / For the Los Angeles Times)
Zhuoming always moistens his paddle at the beginning of practice.
He practically emerged from the womb with a paddle. His father is a coach; his mother a retired player, who started teaching him at an age when most toddlers could do little more than toss a ball around the playground. (Jean Chung / For the Los Angeles Times)
Zhuoming does some stretching during training.
He boards at the Xuanwu Sports School in Beijing, where he wakes daily at 6:30 a.m., for a rigorous curriculum that includes math, Chinese, English and six hours a day of table tennis. (Jean Chung / For the Los Angeles Times)
Zhuoming practices his game at school.
With a paddle in his hand, he is bursting with explosive energy; off the court he is uncommonly poised for a pre-adolescent. (Jean Chung / For the Los Angeles Times)
The Chinese are often criticized for running Soviet-style sports mills, in which children are selected for particular sports based on their physique.
But with table tennis, there seems to be a large enough reservoir of enthusiastic talent in the population of 1.3 billion. (Jean Chung / For the Los Angeles Times)
